The Use of Social Media to Improve Public Awareness on Obesity
Nursing and healthcare have been greatly influenced by research both politically and in policymaking. To make competent decisions, policymakers must conduct required research to identify and develop solutions to public health issues. Obesity as a public health issue threatens both the young and the old due to its link to chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and cancer. The increase in social media as health promotion tools presents effective platforms to improve knowledge and create public awareness on health hazards of being overweight.
On social media, quality research is limited on obesity requiring policymakers and healthcare institutions improving and increasing available information online to create public awareness. As such, social media plays the role of enabling research done on obesity reach many people online. According to (), research done on the issue is influenced by the policies governing different healthcare institutions. For instance, policies should be restructured to allow people online access necessary information since most people prefer to find information from sources familiar to them like Google and Yahoo. Therefore, advocating for policies on relevant information being posted on familiar social media sites will play a huge role in improving public awareness on dangers of obesity.
Policies are mainly shaped by political institutions and leaders are mandated to provide required support to improve the quality of care provided. As denoted by (), there is power in media advocacy especially through promotional messages and slogans. For instance, a slogan like ‘More Walks, Better Health’ serves as an encouraging and challenging message to be active physically. On this note, ethics influence the decisions taken by policymakers during the creation of promotional messages that add value to the general public.
To conclude, social media ensures many people access the promotional messages by health care institutions. It is however the ethical duty of health policymakers to ensure they provide the relevant information online. All in all, there is increased use of social media and healthcare policymakers can maximize on it to improve public awareness on obesity.
References
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Brall, C., Schröder-Bäck, P., Porz, R., Tahzib, F., & Brand, H. (2019). Ethics, health policy-making and the economic crisis: a qualitative interview study with European policy-makers. International journal for equity in health, 18(1), 1-10.
Mason, D. J., Gardner, D. B., Outlaw, F. H., & O’Grady, E. T. (2015). Policy & Politics in Nursing and Health Care-E-Book. Elsevier Health Sciences.